EU President Juncker: ‘Eurozone Not Facing New Crisis’

Faced with a populist government entering parliament in Italy and a left-wing Prime Minister possibly being backed by the extreme-left in Spain, many commentators in Europe today fear for a renewed debt crisis like the one the ‘old continent’ had in 2012-2013, when many thought Greece would be thrown out of the bloc.

However, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who at the same time has to deal with US imposed steel tariffs for an industry which employs roughly half a million people in the 28-member bloc, wants to reassure markets before they open again on Monday that Europe is in no way looking at a renewed crisis.

Asked directly whether he thought the Eurozone area would enter a new crisis phase, as the markets seemed to believe this week, Mr Juncker responded: “No. The reactions of the financial markets are irrational. People should not draw political conclusions from every fluctuation in the stock market. Investors have been wrong on so many occasions before.”